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Tag: filmmaking

So it’s been silent on here for a bit, but we’ve been working regardless, and real hard too (that last part is overcompensating for all the fun we had this year, he he).

And so without much ado we present to you, Jackpot as created and directed by the man Ag Etefia and written by none other than Nneka, and materialized into glorious reality by us. (I’m not even sure what that means but it was supposed to sound sensational) we’re on to other things even as the year winds down because we work like that, so stay tuned and holler at us, we’d love to work with you next.

Hey guys, sorry episode two came pretty late, I was in the middle of a lot of things that included attending the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) to study cinematography and trying to deliver for some very demanding, nit picking, corporate client.

So, I know I’m owing a post on the last stuff I wrote which was supposed to have a continuation – I honestly can’t even remember what that post was as I’m writing this piece – but in any case, let’s get back on track shall we?
When we talk about low budget filmmaking, either for the purposes of documentary filmmaking, feature or short films, or even events coverage (not really, a low budget events coverage is you using your phone for photo and video ops at your siblings graduation, so let’s nix the idea of a ‘lo-budg’ events coverage) the idea at first glance is to make audio visual content with the barest minimum. This concept does hold true, but the line keeps shifting once one gets to the ‘barest minimum’ part. What constitutes the barest minimum? Continue reading “DEMYSTIFYING THE LOW BUDGET MYTH”→

Fusion 7 is a 3d compositing and animation tool which I’ve never used. But seeing as I haven’t used Nuke or the others let’s get to the gist of it. Blackmagic design, the nice guys who gave us DaVinci Resolve, the Blackmagic Cinema and Pocket cameras which gave us RAW and 4K on the cheap are giving you the filmmaker the awesome opportunity to create high end special effects for your low budget films with a free version of the fusion 7 software. Continue reading “3D COMPOSITION SOFTWARE FUSION 7 GOES FREE”→

I would be the first to say that this title is not apt, but then again I might be right with the naming of this article at the end of the day, or not, again approach this article with the same amount of caution you employ when walking under high tension power lines while gas pipelines crisscross underneath you. If you however live in Nigeria, like say diamond estate, don’t take my advice, organise fasting and prayer sessions instead. Back to the matter at hand. Continue reading “I HATE CREATIVE PEOPLE (I THINK)”→

so we know the 4k BMCC is out, the URSA and that other one(the studio camera) is out too, or rather has been announced but knowing blackmagic it won’t be available when the masses expect it to be. So i got a chance to shoot with the blackmagic 2.5k not too long ago and the footage just got sent to me so I’ll just put up my experience with said device up here quickly.

Hi guys. So I thought in line with keeping to the whole zero budget film making practice that is the doc 360 creed i should introduce you to the tools of the trade. Like we have constantly said, doc 360 is about showing you just how we, the pIXELMORPH crew are learning to make watchable digital content and passing on the lessons learnt in the process to you guys. Trust me, from our side of the divide it’s a lot harder. I mean you have to come out of shooting for a client with a blackmagic cinema camera and an array of different sort of lights to carrying a small point and shoot (albeit a good one) and your Chinese lights. but if you’re shooting for the first time then the gear is simply a tool and nothing more (that is until you pair a 5D mark III with some sweet 70-200mm manual lenses from sigma or rokinon).
Plus I may not make it in time to put up next week’s installment of doc360 on our YouTube channel as I’m traveling on a job to return next week.

So guys, there it is basically, an Olympus SZ-14, an android phone and a card reader. Basically do not expect any miracles from a camera this small. Maximum output is HD(1280*720). digital zoom is 24x so effectively the lens has a range of 4.5-105mm. so there’s some pretty nice wide shots in there. Yes? No? Image quality for video recording is simple; you either shoot warm (daylight) or do a custom white balance. but the magic doesn’t end there. Naturally this camera has a tendency to sharpen the edges of images it records. You don’t notice that when reviewing clips on the viewfinder but once you transfer that to a pc it becomes noticeable. to resolve this use cinec pro or bigasoft pro res converter to convert your mp4 clips to QuickTime 422 mov files. The images loose that sharp edge afterwards.

Audio is good enough on the Olympus. Stereo and all that but that’s where the phone comes in handy. A little software simply called ” audio recorder” is able to record 16 bit, linear PCM, stereo, wav audio. it however also helps if your phone has active noise cancellation mics. phones like the Nokia lumia 920,820,1020 Samsung Galaxy S and Note series among others. Again the magic doesn’t end here. Dump your recorded audio on your pc and engage the services of “audacity”. Audacity provides a simple user interface that allows you normalize, fix, reduce noise and equalize your audio and expert the resulting sound files. I will most definitely do a post about that soon enough.

So basically you’ve converted your mp4 camera files to pro res and worked on your audio, use plural eyes software to sync both audio and video or if you prefer song things the hard way you can manually sync your audio and video files on your editing suite. Just so you know, plural eyes works with Sony Vegas, premiere pro and final cut softwares. if you are using any editing software besides these-and edius,premiere elements and lightworks-you need to step up, just saying.
So either way, once you’re done with your edit, i suggest you use Magic Bullet’s Mojo as a one stop color grade fix for your clip and you’re good to go. That’s how we’ve been doing the whole doc 360 episodes and some other high profile jobs too (don’t tell anyone).

So that’s the technical part, next post will be about the process behind the shoot, logistics, topics, research and sourcing content. Till then, do follow us here @pixelmorph1@pixelmorph2@doc360_

P.S I take [fool] responsibility for any errors as this article wasn’t proofread.